The California Republican Party has cried “Uncle” with today’s announcement that State Rep Ling Ling Chang, in the assembly just six months, will challenge Sukhee Kang for the State Senate seat in SD-29. The previous announced Republican candidate, Tim Shaw from LaHabra, will instead run for Chang’s assembly seat.
While we were working on confirming this news, Matt Cunningham broke the story on AnaheimBlog.
And the news brought out the North OC Conserverati. At Chang’s announcement, Congressman Ed Royce, State Senator Bob Huff, County Supervisor Michelle Steele (a friend of Kang’s) and State Rep. Young Kim.
It’s going to be an interesting race; Kang is way ahead on fundraising and in endorsements. Chang will pick up Shaw’s, but the pivot means the Republicans know this seat is vulernable and are hoping to square the Asian voters in the district off against each other.
Just speculating, that has Jim Brulte’s fingerprints all over it.
Smart move on the part of the GOP.
At least Greg Diamond isn’t running
So far as you know, Punky. I’ve only run against corrupt politicians who, had I not run, would have been unopposed.
Given that the result of my getting 45% against Huff in 2012 apparently made some eyes pop in the state party, who thought that the NPP component in the district was a lot more GOP-leaning then it turned out to be, I’m glad that Huff didn’t get an uncontested 100%. If you were a Democrat, you’d be glad too, as it has helped to bring two viable candidates into the race.
You ran a terrible campaign, raised almost no money. People voted for you because there was a D next to your name and people came out to vote for Obama. And you’re guilty of nepotism; paying your stepdaughter. Please stop patting yourself on the back. SpongeBob would have gotten 45%.
Two candidates? Murdock has about as much chance as you did. Kang’s experience, fundraising, endorsements and work ethic are reasons why Shaw dropped and Chang is in.
Your opinions about my campaign, as with everything else, are driven by who you like and who you dislike. If you were still surrying my favor, as you were at the time (or it may have ended shortly before then), when I realized you were contributing the Agran’s and Krom’s defensive misreading of the political situation regarding the Great Park, contributing to their overconfidence and thus to their defeat.) You actually have no idea how good my campaign was. You, like Sukhee, both weren’t from here and haven’t been paying attention to my area.
If it was SO EASY to get 45% in my campaign, then why didn’t some other more wealthy Democrat parachute in here and run? I’ll answer the question for you: because NO ONE thought that the seat was potentially competitive. I was in touch with Sacramento about the race at the time — you weren’t — and they were just happy to have someone there who could give a speech.
I raised and spent more than they expected — and more than most Democratic candidates in State Senate and Assembly districts have done. But do you criticize Gary Kephart, Gila Jones, Christina Avalos, Joel Block, Anne Cameron, and others who have taken on the burdens of showing the flag in these races? Not if you like them. Only if you don’t. Your analyses are always transparently ends-driven.
MOST Democrats in Orange County, and elsewhere, get vptes primarily because they have a “D” after their name. That’s how party identification works. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But you can figure out how well someone did by comparing them to other candidates in the area. I did OK. Not great, but certainly not horrible.
My big accomplishment there is that I made Bob Huff hang onto his money longer that he would have wanted to, due to his fear of a last-minute push for me. (Jay Chen did the same with Royce, to a much bigger degree, and quite literally can take credit for possibly making the difference in 3-4 seats in Congress and the state legislature.) Maybe that’s too subtle and political sciencey for you.
My daughter is IN THE BUSINESS, you ignoramus, and has served as Treasurer for candidates ranging from Bao Nguyen to D.R. Heywood to Cynthia Aguirre to Jose Moreno. I encouraged her to get into the business — in which she is now the partner of a prominent local Democrat — because I understood how important it is for non-wealthy campaigns to have a competent and affordable Treasurer. Hell yes, I wanted her as my Treasurer — she and her partner are two of the best around. Do you even understand what nepotism IS — and ISN’T?
I don’t want to tear Kang down here — Murdock can fight his own battles with Kang — but your analysis here is simply pig ignorant and you’re so obnoxious about it that I can’t just let it stand.
Kang has two advantages — ethnicity and money — but Chang’s moving into the race undercuts both. (Chang’s position on those areas is what we call “dominant.”) Kang also has two disadvantages. He’s a real carpetbagger — not just a nominal “Lorri Galloway moves across Anaheim” or “Young Kim moves from the next City over” carpetbagger, Few people, including avowed Democrats, knew his name here until he announced.
Unfortunately for him, and for us Democrats generally if he’s nominated, some of the people who do know him are the Fullerton Libertarians who have probably been the loudest and most knowledgeable critics of the Great Park problems (which you steadfastly fail even to acknowledge) outside of Irvine, the OC Weekly office, and the law firm that did the audit. They will be absolutely loaded for bear when it comes to Sukhee.
The Great Park is a compelling, “high-concept,” easy to understand (on a superficial level, but these are VOTERS we’re talking about after all, and that’s how they’re going to understand it) issue. If you think that it won’t be an albatross around his neck, you’re kidding yourself. They are rubbing their hands over this one. And you are constitutionally incapable of getting it.
Now I wish Sukhee well, and if he’s nominated I’ll want him to win. I don’t blame him much for the Great Park problems and I blame his former Council colleagues a lot less than most others in the county do — although more than you do because they’re not my de facto clients and I’m not a Kool-Aid drinker. But for you to be dismissing Brett Murdock is laughable. If he were from Irvine, you’d be slobbering all over him.
He’s a BUSINESS DEMOCRAT, your type of guy. Young, good-looking, well-spoken. The Trades like him. He’s more conservative than I’d like — but having watched him for a whole in Brea he has two unusual characteristics: he’s brave and he’s honest. He’s been willing to take on entrenched interests here and only lost in the last election because Brea’s equivalent of Emil Haddad spent more that anyone has ever seen spent in Brea politics to defeat him — using the sorts of ads that you’d recognize from Irvine. Your having ANY opinion on this race is hilarious.
Kang has two other big negatives that I’m not going to share here. (I don’t know how much Murdock knows about them, but as Kang was not deeply popular in Dem circles there I wouldn’t be surprised if he found out. (PLEASE don’t make me document this — I might be pushing the guy;s campaign at some point. Ask Sukhee if he really wants you to provoke me.) But you’d need to know one hell of a lot more about North OC to justify speaking with even HALF of your blithe confidence. Do you even know about his ties with the Latino community — and that (like Jay Chen) he speaks good Spanish?
Kang’s your buddy (though you might not really be his), so you endorse him without even an iota of nuance or doubt. I get it — that’s your shtick. But don’t make those of us in the rest of the county suffer from your pigheadedness. You’re not actually helping Sukhee — just like you didn’t REALLY help Larry.
1. I never “surryed your favor.” That’s a fantasy of yours.
2. I’m not the only one in Irvine who sees the Great Park situation exactly as I have presented it.
3. You raised less than $5,000 for your campaign; I don’t have to “be from there” to know it was inept and ineffective. It was a presidential years and the Democrats came out to vote. Why in doubt, they vote with a D. Please don’t think a lot of those “D” votes were a vote for you instead of a vote against Huff, Mr. Nader.
4. ” But do you criticize Gary Kephart, Gila Jones, Christina Avalos, Joel Block, Anne Cameron, and others who have taken on the burdens of showing the flag in these races?” Uh, no because they are decent and honest people without a ounce of bitterness in them. Gila actually won her race and you might want to move her to the rare list of elected Democrats in South County. Each one of these people have more class in their little finger than you have in your entire body.
5. I disagree with your paragraphs 4 & 5; you didn’t have enough money to do anything meaningful. I have no doubt Jay will be in Congress someday; he’s a class act.
6. Nepotism is hiring and paying a family member to work for you; it’s fine if its a family business. But perhaps … unethical for a political campaign. Did you pay her more than half of the less than $5,000 you raised instead of on things like ads, mail, signs or robocalls? Unfortunately, we’ll never know because you raised so little money, the public can’t see how you spent your money. I’m sure if Jordan Brandman or Kris Murray paid a family member for campaign work, you’d be all over it.
7. You are clueless to the extent KANG campaigns. He’ll actually work towards getting elected — unlike you. He sold his big house in Irvine and moved into a smaller one in Fullerton. So what’s the over and under on how long you need to live somewhere before you’re not a carpetbagger? Are you a Brea native? Did you go to high school here and work here most of your adult life? Would you be considered a carpetbagger? This is America. Please can move wherever they want and there’s no statute of limitations on how long you live anywhere before you decide to run for public office.
8. I have no real or de facto clients for politics or government.
9. Are you really commenting on Kang’s popularity in Dem circles? Look in the mirror. Whatever Kang’s depth of popularity might be in the party, he was four times what you have. Is Kang perfect? Is anyone? I believe Kang has the experience and leadership qualities that most Democrats in SD-29 will find appealing and will make it easy for voters there to cast a ballot for him.
10. Projection is an interesting thing Greg. Endorsing without an iota of doubt (as you have done for people like Tait, Vaderbilt, and Pettibone), pigheadedness (your conduct on the DPOC central committee meetings), you don’t really help SQS, Dr. Moreno, and a host of other Democrats — all things you’re guilty of that you wish to place on me. Quite frankly, many Democrats running consider an endorsement from Greg Diamond is sort of a kiss of death. And when you challenge these other candidates, no one worries about spending any more than they might have originally planned to because everyone knows you can’t raise money and the only tool you have are your long winded blog posts that demonstrate your ability to use bold and italics and different colors.
I will give you one compliment: losing an election or a court case has never stopped you from claiming a moral victory.
Diamond should run for a spot on The Biggest Loser because he is
Ling Ling Chang stand a FLAT 8″ taller than Ed Royce!
There are many things to criticize Royce about but being short isn’t one of them. Elevate the debate please
Driving down the 60 fwy between the 57 fwy and I-605 I notice most of the writing is Korean. Given that Kang is of Korean descent and Chang is of Chinese descent, I wonder if that will make a difference.